Sounds like a poor flirt to me. Back on track here. Were there ever any feelings of, what am I doing with my life? Yeah, for a moment. I still competed a few more times after being dropped by the national team, and that reinforced that I was done with it. But I’ve always looked at life optimistically. The timing of the green card thankfully put me in a position where I could work and still go snowboarding every single day. I felt lucky. It felt like a second chance. I lived and worked in Mammoth for three years, then one day I got a call from Bobby Meeks, asking if I was interested in riding for DC. If you don’t mind, how old were you at that point? Was this your first major paying brand sponsor? Did this spark a new fire within you? I was 27. I had a minor contract before with Ride, but Bobby was the first to offer me a contract that could help support me through a winter. I had given up a little bit on the profes-sional snowboard career. I was still riding every day but more for myself. That phone call was really exciting and unexpected. It allowed me to start traveling again to snowboard, and to work a little less in the winter. I am thankful for those years in Mammoth. That’s when I really learned to snowboard properly, outside of the park. As long as I have known you, you’ve always done things that align with who you are and what you love to do—taking things as they come and go with the pure desire to be able to continue doing what-ever those things may be. Do you feel like being laid back and chill has helped or hindered your career? It is a mix of both. Maybe I haven’t put myself out there as much as I should. Maybe a bit of imposter syndrome mixed with being way too chill has hindered me a bit. You’ve been riding a lot more backcountry. In fact, after your anti-competition hiatus, you’ve competed in both Natural Selec-tion and RnD. 1 How do you feel returning to a different type of competition setting? I had done Natural Selection once before as an alternate, but it went by quickly and I didn’t get to process it. It was very last minute and then all of a sudden it was over because I didn’t make it past the first round. I didn’t think I would be that into competing until I did RnD. I went into it forgetting about how I had spent years competing in slopestyle and had done Natural Selection. It kind of fired me up. I took it somewhat seriously— picked a line to ride the day before, then stuck to that line. It was fun to figure it out and be strategic. We filmed a few days before the contest so we could feel out the snow conditions. I don’t think I would care to compete in the backcountry if it wasn’t for RnD, but now I’m pretty down and I would like a rebate at Natural Selection if the opportunity pops up. 1 Research & Development is a woman-only gathering and contest hosted by Robin Van Gyn at Whitewater, BC. For more see page 106. Very cool, Stef. I love to see the fire back in ya. So, you’re competing, kind of, you’re filming, and you’re also in school now? Yes. I’m getting my bachelor’s degree in sport and exercise, and it has been a long, long process, but I’m ticking away. I take one class in the winter, then in the summer I take more. Sometimes it’s hard getting home from the mountain or being on a trip and having to do school, but it also helps me sit down and use my brain, which is important to me. You’re also doing exercise coaching and you live in a van sometimes that’s not really your car, because you don’t have one. We’re at the beach right now—you are busy. I call it self-inflicted busyness. I’m fascinated by your ability to laugh at things that might stress other people out. Does anything actually piss you off ? Honestly, not much actually pisses me off. I almost got my life savings stolen from me last week. Do tell how one could possibly do that. I went to buy a car, believe it or not, from a dealership. I wired them money for my down payment. The wire transfer takes 24 hours, so I couldn’t pick the car up until the next day. That night I decided that the car was a bad deal. It didn’t have a warranty, so I backed out of it. They wrote me a check to reimburse my down payment. Three days later the check was declined. I thought I got scammed from the dealership and they were going to steal my money. It took another week to get this money back. But to be honest, during the whole process, it didn’t really even piss me off. I was like, “At least I have my health.” I try not to sweat small things. As snowboarders, most of us live a pretty privileged life. A roof over our head, food, health— most of the time. I like to zoom out a bit. It makes me realize how lucky we all are—the world is a crazy place. So, small things that may piss someone off, I never stress over them. Although, one thing does irk me a bit: when people don’t directly ask you something. If you want something, just ask me directly. STEFI LUXTON 059
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 22.1: Page 59
